A group of parents and former students of the Palo Alto Unified School District filed a civil rights lawsuit against the district regarding a 2025 school-sponsored field trip to a mosque where students learned about Islam.
The lawsuit was filed on Aug. 8 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against the school district and Brent Kline, the principal of Palo Alto High School, by the Community Members for Religious Neutrality in Public Schools – San Francisco Bay Area, which is composed of several Jewish parents and students, one Hindu parent and one Zoroastrian parent.
In Fall 2025, students enrolled in Palo Alto High School’s Social Justice Pathway visited a mosque in Santa Clara County to promote social justice initiatives. During that field trip, students were gifted Qurans, female students were encouraged to wear hijabs, and they observed prayers in a “Quran-memorization program,” according to the complaint…